- 8 - 



A Successful Brush Hake - A Nev; York apple grower repoi'ted last sprJng 

 on a very successful home-made brush rakes He said, "Three of us got 

 the brush out of a 26-acre block in a day and a quarter in this manner, 

 and I could stand up straight T/hen the job was finished J" No tr.'o home- 

 made brush rakes or brush pushers are quite alike* Some of them are 

 • crude looking affairs, to say the least. But the interesting thing is 

 that they can frequently be made inexpensively from materials on the 

 farm, and best of all, they do the job. In this hurr^i'-up age, hand 

 picking of brush is a time consuming and an expensive opera bionr A day 

 spent in making a simple rake or pusher 'iTill greatly reduce the tine 

 and expense imolved. These devices have almost entirely replaced the 

 brush burner so common a generation ago. Any grov;er interested in buili- 

 ing one of these contraptions may get good ideas from a neighbor v/ho has 

 done some eyp-arimentingc A simple plan of one type of pusher is avail-- 

 able through the Extension Service, 



^ -»■ -;;- ^- i'f -;.' ^ ^t •!;- •«• ■;{• -;;- ti- 



BETTER tJERCMNDISING PRACTICES INCREASE APPLE SATJES 



The Washington State Apple Commission is using data from their retail movement 

 studies in Chicago and Los Angeles to learm better ways of merchandising apples, Tvxo 

 of the practices that have been analyzed are the shifting cf apple displays about the 

 produce department and the frequency v.-ith which the retailers rotate the apples in the 

 display. Stores using the better practices had apple sales as much as 62% greater than 

 others, 



Shiftinn: L ocation of Disp lay; Many retailers advocate the practice of frequently 

 changing tne location of their display \irithin the produce department. This is done so 

 that the housevdfe will find it necessary to look around the produce department to 

 find the things she v;ants. In doing so she v/ill see other produce items that vdll be 

 purchased on impulses This, the retailer says, tends to increase her purchases of 

 produce J It was found that in stores wl^^re the apple dispiLays vrere sliifted frequently 

 apple sales vrere approximately one-fifth greater in Chicago and one-fourth greater in 

 Los Angeles, as is shoAiin on the Table beloi/. 



Pounds Sold per 100 Customers 

 Displays Shifted Chicago Los Angers 



Frequently U2,8 



Occasionally 33 e7 



Never 35 ^5 



JIaximum Percent Increase 20 o6^ 



Frequent Shifting of Apple Displays Means Greater Sales; These results are 

 based upon vreekly observations throughout all of the 19S3-5^ apple marketing season. 

 The studies Tiiere made in 28 Chicago stores and in 30 Los Angeles stores^ a cross- 

 section of each market. 



Rotation of Ap ples In Display ; Analysis of apple displays in the 58 stores in 

 the two markets T/ig made to' measure the value of the practice of rotating the fruit in 

 the displays (Rotation is the practice of adding fresh apples to the bottom or side of 

 the display so that the older stock mil be purchased first,) This tends to prevent 

 apples from staying in the display over a period of time and deteriorating because 

 they've been out of storage too long^ It also induces the produce clerk to sort over 

 the fruit that has been on the display before adding fresh apples. 



63.3 

 60,8 

 50.6 

 25 ol^ 



